College football picks, Week 12: Shea Patterson will help Ole Miss cover against Vanderbilt

Don't bother pumping the "breaks" now! Shea Patterson is all up in your mentions, making people super mad that they don't have his slick moves nor No. 20 on the back of their jersey. As someone that made the trip to College Station, I couldn't help but be both nervous and excited to see Shea get his first start as a true freshman on the road in front of 100,000 plus at Kyle Field. When the fourth quarter rolled around, I'm not sure if it was my bloated belly from all the brisket I'd eaten or high blood pressure from the Rebs slowly creeping back into the game, but HOT DAMN... my heart was working overtime to keep up with my jumping up and down after every score. The Rebs now have a huge shot in the arm as they head to Nashville to take on the Commodores, and we LOVE them to cover the 10-point spread.

Other notable story lines from this weekend's action include...

• Florida heads to Baton Rouge for the game that was postponed by Hurricane Matthew. I'm sure the Gators wish they would have given this game a go back in Gainesville, as the Gators are 1-4 straight up and ATS in this match up. We are a slight lean on LSU.
• Oklahoma State is a sneaky good 8-2 team that's still in contention for a second straight Sugar Bowl trip. (MEMBER THE SUGAR BOWL??? I MEMBER!) They take on a TCU team that straight boat raced Baylor last weekend to keep their New Year's Six dreams alive.
• Ohio State be looking ahead to Rivarly Week as they travel to East Lansing as a three-touchdown favorite?

Week 12 picks against the spread

Spreads we love

Ole Miss (-10) at Vanderbilt: After jumping from the Rebel hype train right before it seemed destined to derail into a gorge, Shea Patterson has us climbing back aboard. Vandy is only allowing 18.5 points per game in conference play but the SEC East is by no means an offensive powerhouse. We like Shea to keep the momentum going in the Music City.

Ohio State (-22) at Michigan State: The Buckeyes are in a sweet spot now as the No. 2 team in the CFB rankings. They're almost a lock to make the playoff, even though they could potentially win out and be left out of their conference championship game. MSU was a 24 point dog at home against Michigan and still covered. I'm taking the big home dog but most of the other Cuppers like the Buckeyes.

Washington State (+4) at Colorado: Avast ye swashbuckling matey! Mike Leach will give no quarter to these water buffalo. Colorado doesn't stand a scallywag's chance of plundering the Cougar's potential PAC-12 booty! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! PIRATE NOISES!

Spreads we're split on

Louisville (-14) at Houston: This game happened on Thursday, but I can verify that all picks were made before kickoff (except for Juco, who picked Louisville off of a coin flip I did at home -- I guess when you're leading by so much, you can leave some of your picks up to chance). Not only did Houston cover, they sent Louisville tumbling out of Playoff contention with a dominant 36-10 win.

Arkansas at MSU (-1.5): State's bowl chances hang in the balance as they sit at 4-6 heading into their last two games. That South Alabama game stings even more and I can't help but be a little giddy. I don't want to speak too soon because the Egg Bowl still looms and lord knows a scrappy MSU team trying to get bowl eligible is not something I want to see in Oxford.

Last week's picks

So the crazy back door cover from last week was Kentucky at Tennessee. We made our picks while the line was at Tennesse -12.5, but it jumped to 13.5/14 before kickoff. Down, 49-22 with 7:12 left to play, of course Kentucky scored two touch downs in the last four minutes of the game to make it 49-36. While the closing line benefited those who took Kentucky, the earlier line gave the Volunteer faithful a break. Alex continues her surge upwards while the rest still run in the middle of the pack.

Here are the current standings, with last week's record in parentheses.

• 52-36 (59%) Juco (5-5)
• 47-41 (53%) Gray (7-3)
• 45-43 (51%) Alex (6-4) and Smeargle (5-5)
• 42-46 (48%)  Jeff (4-6) and Zach (4-6)
• 40-48 (45%) Ghost (4-6) and Borkey (2-8) 
• 39-49 (44%) Will (3-7)
• 38-50 (43%) Whiskey (2-8)
• 35-53 (40%) TwoYards (5-5)